Inter Milan and its ghosts face Real Madrid

Inter Milan begins its Champions League campaign against Real Madrid carrying more than the weight of recent disappointments. The Italian club has not beaten the Spanish side in this century, and its last European victory over Madrid came on Nov. 25, 1998, at San Siro.

That night, Luigi Simoni’s Inter defeated Guus Hiddink’s team in the group stage, with Roberto Baggio scoring twice and Iván Zamorano adding the other goal. Since then, Inter has failed to win any of its four meetings with Madrid, at either San Siro or the Santiago Bernabéu.

The matchup also recalls a more glorious chapter in Inter’s history. In the 1964 European Cup final in Vienna, Helenio Herrera’s team beat Alfredo Di Stéfano’s Real Madrid 3-1. Sandro Mazzola scored twice and Aurelio Milani added the third, giving Inter its first European Cup.

Inter, along with Benfica and Liverpool, remains one of the only clubs to defeat Real Madrid in a European Cup final. That generation, known as the “Grande Inter,” established the Milan club as a force in European football. Madrid responded two years later in the 1966 semifinals, winning the first leg 1-0 and drawing the return at San Siro to reach the final, which it won against Partizan.

The current pressure is also self-inflicted. Inter, a three-time Champions League winner, has come close to lifting the trophy twice in four seasons. Manchester City beat it 1-0 in the 2023 final in Istanbul, with Rodri scoring, and another defeat followed two years later in Munich. The supplied report ends while describing that second setback.

Against that backdrop, Real Madrid represents a major test, with the clubs’ old accounts and Inter’s recent near misses meeting in one fixture.